Global Studies Test

Yesterday was a grey cloudy day. It rained a lot, and later in the day the ocean was rockier than it's been before. For this reason, I think, the internet wasn't working very well. Everything depends on how clearly the view of the satellite is, and yesterday I think there was too much weather.

Today, however, is gorgeous. Very warm and sunny, the students also had their first exam in global studies, which meant most of the faculty and staff were at their leisure. I took advantage of that and headed out to the pool. I had about 1 peaceful hour before they finished their test and started streaming back out here to the deck. I'm still sitting outside under the shade on the deck while I write this. It is 10:00 AM on Saturday, I think it's 8:00 PM Friday on the East Coast.

The buzz on the ship the last couple of days has been the Global Studies Exam. Several students said they'd never been more nervous about a test ever. I think because the topics covered are so broad, the lead professor is really unpopular, and students like to whine. The students coming out of the test have been saying it wasn't that bad. Some of the questions were out of left field, but in general it wasn't as random as it could have been. Most students are saying they think they got B. If it had been a very hard exam, there would have been mutiny. But it doesn't look like mutiny is afoot out here right now. Everyone is back to cow eyed docility.

Out here on the pool deck with me are all of the RDs, which form sort of the in-crowd among the staff. They were in the pool playing Marco Polo until just a few minutes ago, now I think they're playing dominoes at one of the tables. There's some sun bunny students in the deck chairs reading, I think they wear their swimsuits under their clothes at all times, so after class they can come directly here, strip down and start sunning. There's some adult passengers who are getting ready to do some aqua aerobics. And a few gym rats out here lifting weights and doing pull ups.

There's evidently a bit of drama going on with the RD clique. Several of them bought Japan Rail passes and are planning on pal-ing around together, and traveling around Kyoto/Nara area. One of them invited someone from "outside" and the rest of them were annoyed about it. Now they've made it known that they've closed the doors on their clique, no one else allowed in. And they've been telling other people with rail passes that they can't hang out with them. High School, not even, try Junior High.

My plans for Japan are, Baseball Game with practically the whole ship the night we get there, the next day is a day trip to Kyoto, then a free day, a trip to Hiroshima the next day, and then a free day our last day. I'm going to try to get a group together for Karaoke one night, and take a trip to a bath one day. We're getting into Kobe September 12th in the morning (that's the afternoon of the 11th for most of you). Just a reminder that my full itinerary is posted in my blog as the first entry.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the experience of living in community the way we are. It just really occurred to me the other evening what a very different experience this is than life on a college campus. Living with the students and your colleagues, and sharing every meal with them and their families, and spending every evening socializing with them, is not the same as an evening or two at the faculty club and lunch occasionally at the Pav. Several of the faculty spouses have started a writing clinic. The people with small children pretty much turned them loose after a couple of days, there's someone around every corner to watch out for them and teach them something or play with them. The teaching faculty have been commenting on how much more enthusiastic the students are in class. More engaged, more curious, much livelier discussions. I have to think that the community experience might explain that. I'll need to think about this some more.

Everyone have a great weekend.